What makes a community a place where people choose to build a career, raise a family, start a business, or put down roots?
There isn’t one answer.
Jobs matter. But so do housing, child care, broadband, quality of life, and the support people need to stay in the workforce and build a future.
These issues are deeply connected, and communities across Eastern Kentucky are working every day to find solutions. At the SOAR Summit, presented by Appalachian Wireless and the Appalachian Regional Commission, we’re bringing those conversations together through our FOCUS Breakout Sessions.
Two of our FOCUS themes, Building Competitive Communities and People & Place, will tackle some of the most important questions facing communities across the region. More importantly, these sessions are designed to move beyond simply identifying challenges.
We’re bringing people together to talk about solutions, share what’s working, learn from one another, and identify ideas that can be put into action.
Building Competitive Communities
How do we create communities where people choose to invest, work, and live?
That question is at the center of our Building Competitive Communities theme.
The Housing Opportunity: Rethinking Growth in Eastern Kentucky
Housing isn’t just about having enough places for people to live. It’s part of the infrastructure communities need to compete.
Employers need workers who can find housing. Communities working to attract new residents need places for them to call home. Families considering whether to stay, return, or relocate to Eastern Kentucky are looking at the complete picture of what life in a community can offer.
The Housing Opportunity: Rethinking Growth in Eastern Kentucky will bring together leaders who are looking at housing through that larger lens.
The conversation will explore how housing can support talent attraction, employers, economic growth, and stronger communities while sharing practical examples and strategies that local leaders can take home.
Moderator and panelists to be announced
Beyond Broadband: Turning Infrastructure into Opportunity
Eastern Kentucky has spent years working to close the digital divide. Now, another question is becoming increasingly important:
What do we do with that connectivity?
As Kentucky prepares to deploy millions of dollars in BEAD non-deployment funding, communities have an opportunity to think beyond broadband infrastructure itself and consider how connectivity can support workforce development, entrepreneurship, education, healthcare, industry attraction, and quality of life.
Beyond Broadband: Turning Infrastructure into Opportunity will focus on what’s coming, what communities should be doing now, and how local leaders can position themselves to turn broadband investment into long-term opportunity.
Moderator: Chris Boggs | Operations Manager, Shaping Our Appalachian Region
Panelists
Hilda Legg | Founder, Legg Strategies
Other panelists to be announced
People & Place
Infrastructure can help a community compete, but ultimately, communities are about people.
Our People & Place FOCUS sessions will examine what it takes to build healthier, stronger, and more connected communities where people can participate in the workforce, build careers, raise families, and create a life.
Building Access to Quality Child Care Through Public-Private Partnerships
For working families, access to quality child care can determine whether taking or keeping a job is even possible.
That makes child care more than a family issue. It is also a workforce and community development opportunity.
Building Access to Quality Child Care Through Public-Private Partnerships will explore how employers, local governments, child care providers, nonprofits, and other partners can work together to understand local needs and build solutions.
Attendees will leave with partnership models, resources, and practical next steps that can help communities begin advancing child care solutions of their own.
Moderator: Kerrigan Bolling | Business Accelerator Coordinator | SOAR
Panelists
Sarah Fugate | Business Programs Manager, Shaping Our Appalachian Region
Amanda Kelly | Director of Small Business Training, Southeast Kentucky Economic Development Corporation (SKED)
Michelle Spriggs | Eastern Kentucky Center Director, Kentucky Small Business Development Center (SBDC)
Kate Dean | Director of Community-Based Partnerships and Strategy, Child Care Aware of Kentucky
Karen Thompson | Interim Executive Director, Appalachian Early Childhood Network
EKY Remote: Meet Those Who Made the Move
What happens when people from across the country choose Eastern Kentucky?
More than 80 families from over 30 states have made that decision through EKY Remote.
During EKY Remote: Meet Those Who Made the Move, you’ll hear directly from people who chose Eastern Kentucky as home.
Why did they come? What made them stay? How have they become part of their new communities? And what can their experiences teach us about attracting talent, growing our population, and strengthening local economies?
This isn’t a conversation about why we think people might choose Eastern Kentucky. You’ll hear from people who actually did.
Moderator: Latasha Friend | Director, EKY Remote
Panelists
Ben Ledo | Vice President | MakeMyMove
Aaron Loveland | EKY Remote Mover | Owner | Loveland Brand Designs
Chelsea Clubb | EKY Remote Mover
Removing Barriers, Building Opportunity
Getting someone hired is an important milestone. Helping them build a lasting career is the bigger opportunity.
Transportation, child care, the benefits cliff, and other barriers can make staying employed and advancing difficult, even when someone wants to work.
Making Work Work: Removing Barriers, Building Opportunity will explore how employers, workforce organizations, and community partners can recognize these challenges earlier and work together to help employees succeed.
Because workforce development shouldn’t end when someone gets the job.
Moderator: Kim Albright | Chief Program Officer, Shaping Our Appalachian Region
Panelists
Barb Gay | Program Manager | EKY Runway | SOAR
Renda Osborne | Human Resources Manager | Martins Perterbilt
Aaron Poynter | Director of the Reentry and Employment Services Branch | Commonwealth of Kentucky
Justin Suttles | Workforce Development Director | TENCO
Come for the Conversation. Experience the Summit.
The FOCUS Breakout Sessions are designed to create conversations that continue long after the session ends.
But they are only one part of the SOAR Summit experience.
Between sessions, you’ll have opportunities to meet people working on similar challenges, connect with potential partners, exchange ideas with leaders from across the region, and build relationships that can continue when you return home.
You’ll also experience the EKY Experience, where businesses, organizations, initiatives, and partners from across the region come together in one place to showcase the people and work moving Eastern Kentucky forward. The EKY Experience is presented by Appalachian Regional Healthcare.
That’s the value of being at the Summit.
You may come because a housing conversation matters to your community. You may want to learn what broadband investment could mean for your organization. Maybe you’re trying to solve a child care challenge, strengthen your workforce, or understand what makes people choose Eastern Kentucky.
Whatever brings you through the door, you’ll be surrounded by people who care about many of the same questions you do.
Come learn. Make connections. Share what you’re seeing in your community. And be part of the conversation about what’s next for Eastern Kentucky.
Save $25 on Your Summit Registration
We’re offering a special registration discount as part of our FOCUS Breakout Sessions announcement.
Use promo code FOCUS when you register for the SOAR Summit and save $25 on your registration.
Don’t just read about the ideas shaping Eastern Kentucky.
Come be part of the conversation.